Hatching apparatus for eggs.



W. BAGHMANNi HATGHING APPARATUS FOR EGGS.

APPLICATION IiLED MAR; 17. 1910.

V 9 6 I Patented Mar. 28 1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

a? or!" //1 in cs 77*" ff fl K W. BAGHMANN. HATGHIHG APPARATUS FOR EGGS.APPLIOATIOHIILBD 111111.17, 1910.

Patented Mar.28,1911.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WW/6 W WALTER BAGHMANN, 0F LANGENGBOBSDORF, GERMANY.

HATCI-IING APPARATUS FOR EGGS.

Specification of Letters Iatent.

Patented Mar. 28, 1911.

Application filed. March 17, 1910. Serial No. 550,045.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VVALTER BACHMANN, a subject of the German Emperor,and resident of Langengrobsdorf, 7 Germany, have invented a new andImproved Hatching Apparatus for Eggs, of which the following is aspecification.

To attain favorable results with hatchingapparatuses and to broodchickens which, as to vitality, are equal to those hatched by a hen itis necessary that as far as possible the natural conditions areimitated, and this requirement is complied with to a great extent withthe hatching-apparatus constituting this invention.

The hen sitting on the egg turns the latter instinctively from time totime by a movement of the body, so that the germ, which is alwaysfloating upon the surface, does not dry fast on the shell. In order toobtain a like result, the eggs are placed upon an endless apron,supported upon rollers to which motion is imparted from time to time, sothat the eggs will be turned whenever necessary. The movement of therollers may be advantageously brought about by means of a hand-crank,and as a matter of course, not continually but intermittingly, as isalso the case with the hen, inasmuch as the eggs are turned by same onlyfrom time to time.

It is of special importance that the eggs are, as is the case with thehen, brooded by touchingand not by radiantwarmth, and that they arereceiving during this process such a supply of air as corresponds withnature. To attain this object the eggs are situate in chambers that areonly open at the top, and the walls of which are so low that the eggsare projecting over them with their upper part, and as a consequencerising fresh air can join the germ by slits situate between thechambers, while as for the rest the eggs are surrounded by carbonic acidsecreted from them. This is also the case in an ordinary nest, and,therefore, it is necessary to have the egg-shells softened by carbonicacid. The latter can, however, not fully cover the eggs and thus smotherthe germ inasmuch as it flows immediately downward as soon as it reachesthe upper border of the walls of the chambers.

A receptacle containing warm water serves for instance as source ofwarmth. Same has to be sufficiently isolated in an upward direction andcovered downward or toward the eggs with a paste-board or similar coveragainst which the eggs are bearing. The latter are hereby protectedagainst breakage, and moreover the warmth has not so intense an effectas if the eggs are bearing directly against the metallic heating-body.

An uninterrupted warming is not of advantage to the eggs, and,therefore, the hen takes instinctively good care by temporarily leavingthe nest for a certain cooling of the eggs as soon as she feels that thetemperature in the nest is becoming too high. To also imitate here witha hatching-apparatus the natural conditions the eggs must be removed inan automatic way answering the purpose, from the source of warmth, assoon as the thermometer provided for the observation of the temperatureshows the overpassing of an admissible limit.

Two wires are arranged with this invention in the place where the upperend of the quicksilver-column of the thermometer is situate. They belongto an electric circular current in which is situate besides the sourceof current an electro-magnet, the anchor of which is located on thefloor of the chambers of eggs, which chambers are capable of beingjointly shoved in a perpendicular way and are pressed upward by aweight. If the circular current is closed in consequence of theproduction of a conducting-connection be tween the two ends of the wireby the quicksilver, the electro-magnet attracts its anchor, and as aconsequence the chambers of eggs are lowering, so that fresh air canpass over the eggs. Owing to the subsequent cooling the column ofquicksilver contracts again, the current becomes interrupted, and thechambers of eggs are neared again by the weight to the source of warmth.Thus it occurs that the conditions are exactly equal to those of naturalhatching, and accordingly the results attained are very good.

The drawing represents such a hatching apparatus in a form given asexample for execution.

Figure l is a longitudinal cut of the chambers of eggs, Fig. 2 a sideview of the apron driving mechanism. Fig. 3 shows a part of the chambersas seen from above. Figs. 4 and 5 represent the whole hatchingapparatus,as seen from the side and with lowered or raised chambers of eggs in asmaller measure. Fig. 6 is a front-view to Fig. 5.

The heating-body (Z with the supplyingtube 6 formed conformable to thepurpose by tubes bent in serpentine windings rests on the feet a betweenthe front-walls 0, showing beneath a projecture b. Upward it is providedwith a multiplex isolation f (Fig. 4), and downward it is covered with apaste-board or a similar layer 9. Between walls 0 there is arranged avertically movable frame h, provided with a plurality of chambers 2'which are adapted to contain the eggs. Vithin each chamber 2' arejournaled a pair of rollers '12 which may be simultaneously turned byhandle at through sprocket wheels is and chain Z. An endless band orapron p of stuff or the like, and being supported by the bolster 0, isstretched over the rollers n. The eggs 9 rest on the band and areconsequently turned as soon as the band 7) moves. Chambers 5 areseparated from each other by partitions 1 extending between thechambers. Each of these partitions is doubled, to form an air space 1'that communicates at its bottom with the atmosphere and delivers it tothe top of the eggs within two adjoining chambers. Similar air spacesare formed between the end walls of the flanking chambers and the wallsof the frame. The height of the wall of the chambers is sochosen thatthe upper end of the egg where the germ is situated is projecting overthe walls and accordingly accessible to the very oxygenous air arisingfrom the slits 1' after the passage of a piece of cloth closing theframe it in a downward direction, so that the germ can take up so muchoxygen as is wanted. Properly speaking, there is not existing here acurrent of air which would cool the eggs in a detrimental manner but theair approaches the eggs only to such an extent as is necessary to covertheir want of oxygen.

The eggs are, as is known, emitting oxy-- gen and must be alwayssurrounded by same in their lower part, while an over flowing of theentire egg would lead to a destruction of the germ, and it is especiallyfor this reason that the walls of the chambers have a lower height thanthe eggs because the chambers can then fill with the heavy oxygen. Thelatter flows, however, downward through the slits of air as soon as ithas reached the upper edge of the walls of the chambers.

To be able to remove from time to time in an automatic way, and as soonas the temperature in the hatching-apparatus oversteps a certain degree,the eggs from the source of warmth in the immediate neighborhood ofwhich they are always situated (Figs. 5 and 6), such an arrangement madethat there is fastened at the traverse s placed at the bottom of thechamber of eggs and sliding in guides firstly, a scalebeam u pressedupward by the weight t, and secondly the anchor 12 of a firmly locatedelectro magnet o. The latter is incited to action by a closure of thecurrent and then attracts the anchor and at the same time the chamber ofeggs and keeps-same in the deep position until the current isinterrupted.

again. The closure of the current occurs, however, if the thermometer m,partly lying in a water-bath to (Fig. 1), indicates the overpassing of acertain temperature, because the quicksilver-column produces in thiscase a guiding connection between the two ends of the wire y melted downin the tllQllllOlIlQtGl, and the current coming from its unmarked sourceflows through the conduction .2, thereby inciting the electro-magnet toaction. After some time the column of quicksilver is sinking inconsequence of a gradually lower temperature, and inasmuch as thecurrent is then interrupted the electro-magnet discharges again itsanchor, respectively, the chambers of eggs, and these move upward underthe action of the weight t, and as a consequence are now sub ject againto the influence of the source of warmth. This process repeats itselffrom time to time, and if the eggs are then oftener turn-ed by movingaround the crank m, the former develop exactly in the same manner as ifhatched by a hen.

Patent claims.

1. A hatching apparatus comprising a frame, a plurality of inclosed eggchambers, a series of double partitions extending between the chambersand having air spaces thatmmmunicate at their bottoms with theatmosphere and at their tops with two adjoining chambers, and air spacesformed between the frame and the end walls of the flanking egg chambers.

2. In a hatching apparatus, a vertically movable egg chamber, a heatingbody arranged in proximity thereto, and temperatare-controlled means forautomatically varying the distance between the chamber and the heatingbody.

3. In a hatching apparatus, a vertically movable frame, a series of eggchambers carried thereby, a heating body arranged in proximity to saidchambers, means for norm ally raising the frame toward the heating body,and a thermometrically actuated electromagnet for lowering the frame ata predetermined temperature of the egg chambers.

In testimony whereof I atlix my signature.

WALTER BACHMANN.

In the presence of- F. I'IENHERN, CHARLES NnUnR.

lopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

